Category Archives: Credit cards

Let’s see, my labs came in but I had to call the nurse to get the results. My doctor is on call for other doctors this week so he is slammed. My CBC is all the same and normal, Kappa light chains went up to 15.0, Lambda was the same at 11.1, the ratio went up just slightly to 1.30 ( from 1.27). So not bad but I’d rather the ratio be a little lower. But still all in the normal range. June marks 2 years of being off all chemo. What a lovely time it has been and I am grateful every day.

We zipped down to Costco at 9am to get a few things. Mostly coffee. Last week I had to go buy a pound at Starbucks and that was a rude awakening. So off we went. We filled up the Santa Fe, and then got thru Costco fairly quickly. I didn’t need a whole lot so it went quick. We also paid our membership which was due June 1st.

Tonight is a pizza night and I gave my son cash to get a Round Table. I had a coupon for a speciality pizza for $19.99 and we love their gourmet veggie. So a good deal.

We were going to go to the nursery and get some pots for me to re-pot some of my house plant friends but it’s raining so we nixed that. I guess we saved money by not going but I’ll still need to get some at Home Depot in the next week or so.

Yesterday I went out to the barn and declutter more magazines, some kitchen things I had put in a box for my son when he was going to live at SFSU( which he didn’t do), and other misc. It’s the start of a small thrift store run.

I worked on the budget and June looks okay. Still working on finishing the CC that we put Z’s tuition on. I’m okay with that. I’d like to target end of July to have it done.

I think that’s all I can think of.

We did feel bad for all the campers heading up to Tahoe for Memorial day weekend. It was pouring down rain and I’m sure it’s worse up there.

Well, really, a new budget is needed since the old one is completely blown. Today, I’m going to write up new numbers and see how they stack up. June should be a better month for a number of reasons. 1. B will get a bonus and that will get us back on track. 2. We’re not going to give my son any school money, as he’s done for this semester. Also, he’s going back to his old job, so this will definitely help. 3. At least one of our bills has been reduced by $125. so that’s helpful. 4. We are going with a HARP refi and that will reduce our payment. This hasn’t happened yet but I hope by July 1.

We are still working on paying off the Federal taxes that we put on the cc but it still will be a few months. The only extra this month is our AAA membership. So, we should be able to snowball money in the CC. We’ll see. It seems it’s always something.

Today I go get my blood tests. I should know by Thursday what my numbers are. So I’m going in to do that , then pick up a few groceries(cat food)….. Plus I might drop off the Goodwill stuff, just to get it out of the car.

Dinner tonight is pasta with sauce and salad. I’m making a bolognese sauce in the crockpot.

This week I’m in the bedroom zone. I’ll probably tackle the closet as that seems to be my nemesis.

This is an article on the sad state of financial affairs of many people. The author is quite honest in his evaluation of his own current financial affairs and how he got there. He has a loan modification and is paying off credit cards.

Honestly, I totally agree with him. I wish we had been more financially smart. We never made any smart decisions financially till really about the time I was diagnosed with cancer. But even in those first difficult years with treatment and A Stem Cell Transplant, we made plenty of mistakes. The biggest was refinancing when the market was at its height. We were foolish to believe the loan officer that this was a good deal to maximize money in equity. What a mistake. When the market crashed and we’ve been under water in this house, we are now on the other side that the market is coming back up. WE too had a loan modification and it saved us. This actually is just ending and then the interest rate is going up.

I think when I started to embrace being minimalist, budgeting, not spending money for things clicked for me. We’ve mad a lot of progress and are quite frugal in all expenditures. Yet, there are still expenditures that are outpacing income. We’re helping our son with money at junior college. We pay for his car insurance and food. It is not giving us much to put away but we want to help him right now. Smart move? I don’t know but we are making the decision to the best of our ability now. We also put our Federal taxes on a credit card and we’re having to pay that down.

All in all, everyone, I’m sure does what they can but sometimes keeping up with expenses versus money coming in is a struggle.

I also think that people who have received inheritances or who are wealthy, or have no mortgages , or maybe they’ve just done everything right and made enough money in their careers and have money to put toward savings etc,. Some of these people just don’t get it. Yes, we have family members who really don’t get it and of course live their happy go lucky lives with inheritances they received.

Yes, you can be frugal, budget, sing till your blue in the face, but sometimes there just isn’t enough money and how many of us are one pay check away from disaster. I’ve learned a lot in these last 5 years about being frugal and stockpiling pantry items, having a small emergency fund but there’s still a long way to go.

I don’t think it’s for us to judge others, though, maybe just some compassion and understanding.

Well, the trees are packed away. I streamlined our ornaments into 3 bins. This meant giving up the hall mark boxes I kept the ornaments in. But they take up so much space. I kept a few and the rest are history.
Everything looks more fresh now and simple. Less eye clutter.
Today, we’re going to do a book drop of discarded library books, thrift store stuff, and I need to go to staples for some calendar stuff for my leather binder.

I’m making 2 loaves of the Tartine bread, and dinner is planned.
Oh, our washer is acting up ( not starting) so we ordered an inexpensive on sale one from Home Depot. Our water dryer are may tags and were quite expensive when new. But now they’re 12 years old and lots of parts are wearing out. My husband has fixed the dryer 3 times and the washer once maybe twice . So we’re biting the bullet and buying at least the washer. It’s not electronic like the matag, just knobs, but heck it’ll work at least. No delivery charge, and it was on sale I think with 30% off. So I’m okay with it.
Someone was blogging about not using any cash and doing all credit cards during the month and then laying it off. I’m not sure if this would work for us. I might check about a card with better rewards than we have. It has some but not a lot. Does anyone do this regularly. My concern is going over budget and not keeping track well enough.

JKWP day is 577, we will pass 580 this week.

A couple of goals for 2015, pay extra on the car payments at least 3x, one extra mortgage payment, and try and save.

I'm a wife and mom of three young kids - ages 11, 10 and 8 and I just happen to have cancer. Multiple Myeloma is a cancer of the blood that is currently incurable but IS considered highly treatable! My goal is to make people laugh, cry or feel a little less alone whether you are a mom, cancer patient or BOTH!